I frequently see subspecies on iNaturalist listed with the same common name as the parent species. This is confusing, as if one isn’t looking too carefully a person can easily accidentally select a specific subspecies when they meant to identify something at the full species level. I have seen this …

Yes, among many others (for example, Dark-eyed Junco).

This has been discussed a few times and I think the most elegant solution is the one proposed by @comradejon to display the common name for the parent species when an infrataxon lacks its own common name . But I want to point out a big reason why the current policy is problematic. I work mostly wit…

Is it necessarily a bad thing for some of the subspecies to get fewer IDs? If a user doesn’t know what subspecies are (which are already often an ill-defined concept), then shouldn’t they probably be just identifying to species anyway?

I see this situation from both sides, and it can be frustrating no matter how you slice or dice it. Here’s a couple of scenarios and examples: Example #1 The Vaux’s Swift (Chaetura vauxi) has seven subspecies divided into 4 distinct morphological, ecological, or perhaps even genetically. The nomin…

Usefully, if you were the idiot who added the same common name for the subspecies as the parent species, you can also delete it without taking up a curator’s time. :rofl:

[image] rupertclayton: The result is that the more common subspecies attracts fewer IDs than we would expect its prevalence to merit. The lack of a common name skews the apparent importance of the two taxa in other places as well. I don’t think this is necessarily the result of a lack of comm…

Except that botanists point out that the ssp info is important. Otherwise this thread would not be a discussion.

This used to be my practice for Malva sylvestris, but it then leads to unnecessary notifications about disagreeing IDs from those who later add the subspecies info, so I will probably stay away from doing that.

[image] DianaStuder: Except that botanists point out that the ssp info is important. Otherwise this thread would not be a discussion. I didn’t say that the subspecies information isn’t important to botanists. I was merely noting that there are other reasons besides a lack of common name why p…

Yeah, I’d say the fact that CV doesn’t suggest subspecies is a huge part of the reason observations get placed at species. I’d guess that most users use the CV to “auto-complete” their IDs even when they know the correct ID to save time (I know I do). If I’m observing a Monarch in Pennsylvania, the …

Subspecies Having The Same Common Name as the Species

General

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Are There Really Common Names for Subspecies? General	23	1543	May 12, 2021
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Duplicating common name for nominate subspecies Curators	15	2240	April 16, 2020
Common name v Latin name for subspecies General	28	660	December 20, 2024
Display common name for species when infraspecies (e.g. subspecies) lacks one Feature Requests web , android-app , mobile-app	17	1316	September 28, 2025

Subspecies Having The Same Common Name as the Species

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